Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, World Music & Cultures R&R Chair
If we think about the British Museum displaying a vase from ancient Babylon, the concept of “cultural appropriation” is clear: They likely picked up the vase during the glory days of the Empire. In that case, one group takes something from another group. Stealing is wrong. So, one culture appropriates something from another culture. However, if we think about how an F# gets lifted from one group and used in another context, the problem gets quite a bit knottier.
The wonderful Dr. Kurt Knecht, pianist-organist-composer-editor-soul extraordinaire and co-owner of Music Spoke Publishing, starts his blog entry for June 11, 2023 with the words quoted above.
Later in the blog, he adds:
It’s just easier to conceptualize the idea of appropriation when it is one of the plastic arts. We can understand a physical object that is taken from one person and placed somewhere else. Invisible things like music are much harder to assign an owner.
Brilliantly written, I thought!
I believe I am not alone in thinking that I have many, many more questions than answers as it relates to cultural appropriation in music. At times, I must confess, it paralyzes me. It scares me, because I want to do the right thing. I want to honor different cultures respectfully, and I don’t want to offend anybody or make a big mistake. Where is the line of what is acceptable and what is not? Am I doing the right thing?
Cultures define themselves and, I would argue, our role as musicians is to enjoy them, study them, analyze them, and share them, but always with respect, observing the cultural framework with integrity. We get in trouble when, surely unknowingly, we set to attempt to re-create them or re-define them as we see fit, as well intentioned as our actions may be. I wish things were more clearly definable, allowing for easier decision-making processes in our wonderful profession.
Is it acceptable to perform choral works in translation? Is it OK for a person from a particular culture to arrange a folk song from another culture? Can I arrange Bach (or any other master composer of the western canon)? Can anybody arrange African-American spirituals? Can anybody perform them? Is it advisable to perform music from the Christian, Muslim, or Jewish traditions (to name a few) and not belong to any of them? The questions are, indeed, endless.
Join us in Albuquerque next year: I am hoping to dive into some of these questions and share ideas and, please, do bring your own!
See you then!
Eduardo Garcia-Novelli
